How the Red Food Diet will help you become a Faster Runner

I am always looking for ways to become a stronger runner. In the past, I’ve focused on doing more speed work, strength training, and long runs with a little something extra.

Recently, I looked inward – at the food going into my body. Diet is an opportunity to make adjustments and fine tune training. I mentioned it recently as one of 4 little things that you can do to improve your running. I think it’s much more than something little.

I’ve been experimenting with various “alternative” diet plans, and after about a month, I’m excited to report some of my findings.

If you’re not familiar, the Red Food Diet is gaining more and more popularity among athletes world wide. Before getting into specifics, here is some background.

What is the Red Food Diet?

In short, the Red Food Diet involves eating only red food for 30 days, then slowly adding back foods of various colors. Some research coming out of China has shown the color red, “stimulates the production of red blood cells” – the part of your blood that carries oxygen from your lungs to your muscles, and carbon dioxide back to the lungs for expulsion.

As most runners know, the amount of oxygen in your blood stream (measured in parts per million) is what keeps you moving faster, longer (this is why aerobic training is so important). Blood doping (that insidious practice by only the most deplorable of athletes), results in a similar effect, albeit illegally.

Now, we may have a very legal, very healthy alternative.

The Formula

The working hypothesis is that red food requires less energy to be converted into oxygen, and subsequent muscular output. You can expect fuel entering your body to be converted 3 – 5 times faster (depending on the R-value of the food you are eating).

To figure out what your E-value is, use this simple formula.

R x (W / Y) * (3.1/G)/18 = E-value.

R is the “R-value” of the food you eat (explained below), W is your weight (in pounds) and Y is the energy conversion ratio. G is the gastronomic number of the caloric density of the food in it’s most raw form (think peppers right out of the ground). I’m honestly not sure where the 3.1 or 18 come from.

The closer this number gets to 1, the faster and more efficiently your body can use the ingested red foods as energy.

The Study

Scientists at the University of Beijing, Suzhou campus, conducted studies using two groups of people. The first group self described as living a “sedentary lifestyle.” The other were average runners with a modest 20 minute 5k PR.

The “sedentary” group was given a diet of only red foods for 30 days, and also a standard, couch-to-5k training plan. The “active” group received the exact same plan, but told they could eat whatever they wanted.

Both groups did a 5k time trial at the beginning and end of the study. The group who was eating only red foods ran 20 – 50% faster after a month. The control group (those eating whatever color they wanted) showed no improvement at all. How’s that for conclusive!

Are Red Foods Really the Only thing You Can Eat?

In short, yes. According to Lona Sandon, RD, an assistant professor of nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, had this to say in an interview with WebMD.

There are many red fruits and vegetables to choose from and they each bring something a little bit different to the table…

She went on to add that the majority of red fruits and vegetables contain massive amounts of antioxidants. Antioxidants have been linked to such miraculous feats as “fighting heart disease and prostate cancer to decrease the risk for stroke and muscular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness in people aged 60 and older). Antioxidants soak up damaging free radicals.”

The U of B.S. study also examined the effects of these free radicals. Damaging free radicals are when non-red foods (of any conflicting color palette), are floating around the body, waiting to get converted for use. Depending on the color mixture you have eaten, they may be left floating for too long.

What Types of Foods Can you Eat?

Find a red crayon. If your food is as red as the next 2 or 3 crayons in the 120 ct box, you can eat it.

A lot of people don’t realize that hamburgers, when very, very rare, are totally fine. Not only is red meat high in iron, but it’s also creates red blood cells extremely fast. The mistake most people make is eating their red meat well done. In fact, red meat in general has the lowest R-value on this diet.

“R-value” is the capacity of a food to resist blood flow. The higher the R-value, the greater the resistance. The scale goes from 0 – 100. Red meat, has an R-value of 1. By contrast, arugula has an R-value of 100 (because it is green). Anything with a value 100 or above is typically not red.

Sample Meals

Here are three of my go to meals.

The Power Breakfast

This is pretty self explanatory. Marinate the steak in the jam overnight, grill (rare), use the remaining jam to top the steak in the same way you might with steak sauce. Shred the potatoes, grill and top with salt.

The Carb Load with a Twizt

This is a great meal to eat the night before a tough workout or race. Because there is little fiber in this meal, you won’t have to worry about taking an unplanned, emergency bathroom break right before you run.

Red pasta sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 lb ground beef (cooked medium so there is plenty of pink left in)

Hot Tamales

1 large bag of Cherry Twizzlers pull ’n’ peel

Instructions

Mix the tomato stuff together with slightly browned beef

Pull apart 3 – 4, of the Twizzlers pull n’n peel’s to use as noodle base

Mix sauce on top of “noodles”

Top with hot tamales to give it a little kick.

Traditionally Twizzlers are not considered part of a healthy diet. That said, they do contain 26g of carbohydrates in just one piece, at only 110 calories. By comparison, a standard serving of pasta has half the amount of carbohydrates, and double the calories.

The Recovery Shake

I make this shake after any run of 10 miles or more. Not only does it provide a much needed glycogen supplement, but it’s fruit flavor mimics the effects of the antioxidants found in real food, without having to eat any.

16 oz bottle of V8 juice

1, 5 lb bag of Swedish Fish

2 cups ice

Dump all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.

V8 is high in sodium, something your body needs after 60 – 90+ minutes of running. Swedish fish provide Omega-3 Fatty Acids, as well as vital post-run-protein, a necessary component of healthy recovery.

My Results

So, am I running faster after 30 days? In short, yes.

Your Red Foods

What other red foods could you start eating on this April Fools day to help you become a stronger runner?

Nathan started running when he was 14. 20+ years later, he's still going. When he's not running, he enjoys exploring the city with his son, finding new restaurants with his wife, traveling, or backpacking. He loves dark beer, dark chocolate, and dark coffee.Nathan currently lives in Portland, Oregon, but works in Minneapolis and runs wherever he is. Favorite Minnesota running route is anything that takes him along the Mississippi River.
Race Results.Nathan's day job is a Consultant with Leadership Vision in Downtown Minneapolis.

Related Posts

Whether you run in the morning or in the evening, breakfast is always a very important meal for runners in training. After a little prep work on Sunday, these Make Ahead Root Vegetable Burritos offer a lot of nutrition but extra no effort in the morning!

The last time we heard from our five Breaking B.Q. Project participants, Eddie, Lauren D., and Rachel shared their experiences at Grandma’s Marathon while Kari and Lauren B. geared up to start training for their fall races. We recently caught up with Lauren B. to hear about her training and upcoming B.Q. attempt. Unfortunately, we were unable to get an update from Kari at this time.

As a parent, it’s important that educate your children about the benefits of running and why it’s important for them to stay physically active throughout their lives. As we know, some kids hate exercise, especially running, so here are some tips on how to get your kids passionate about this beneficial hobby.

Interesting Nathan. Not sure we have heard of this one before, but it worked for you….so maybe it is worth a shot. Our readers will be interested to hear about this one!

frenat

Thanks – it’s really been a powerful force in my training!

Katie Ogden Serbus

I am going to rock this diet and PR my earth day race.

frenat

AWESOME! What is your favorite red food?

Nathan

Katie Ogden Serbus

Probably red WINE. Is that a food? Or would that be considered purple, since it comes form purple grapes?? I was thinking of making it the base of my red diet for the next few weeks. I’ll be a speed demon! Unless it’s really purple, then I suppose I’ll just have to press on at turtle speed.

Crayons were not part of the study. Just hold the crayons up to your food to get a sense of color. Sometimes (depending on lighting), food that isn’t red can appear red. The wax in the crayones acts as a lens by which you can correctly identify the most important food.

I think the real issue here is that the writer is calling a 20 minute 5k PR average or modest. Who is this elitist a-hole writer…I think I remember him from Hal Higdon’s page!

frenat

It’s just the time they used in the study…

Eric Bobick

I’m sure there is some validity to the science but there are a number of things to consider when it comes food beyond its ability to stimulate red blood cells or not. Balance is the key and I see no reason to be this restrictive.

Again, not saying there’s not some validity to the science and that adding more “red” into an already healthy/balanced could be a good idea, but “study group” results make sense regardless of diet.

You take a group of people who don’t run, were eating who knows what, you put them strict diet and have them follow a couch-to-5K training plan. I’d expect them to improve by at least 20% no matter what kind healthy diet plan you put them on.

By comparison, the article says, The “active” group received the exact same plan, but told they could eat whatever they wanted.” Well of course the active group didn’t show improvement. Aside from diet, a month long couch-to-5K plan isn’t going to do anything to improve the performance of a runner who can already run a 20 minute 5K. Just my thoughts.

frenat

Eric, thanks for your thoughts. The study really focuses on eating only red food, and lots of it. The science really can’t be denied here. If you can find another study to refute this, I’d love to read it. I wasn’t able to find anything that specifically said this wasn’t an absolutely perfect idea.

Eric Bobick

Well I can’t say for certain that it is or isn’t perfect and who doesn’t like Swedish Fish! My issue is more with the control group results. I think it would be far more beneficial to see the results of two groups of active runners with similar paces, put them both on an appropriate training plan for their running level but only have one group do the red diet and have the other continue on their current diet.

Eric Bobick

I’ll give you the satisfaction of knowing that you got me. That will teach me to not read the entire article! I was so appalled by “the study group” that I responded before reading the rest, lol. I haven’t been part of Mpls running for long enough to know that you’re not crazy. Funny thing (or sad, really) is that there are so many people out there that would believe that this is a good idea! If I hear one more person talk about how they are detoxing their body for a week, I might puke. Apparently I’m a little too sensitive to the subject! Haha!

frenat

This made me laugh! This post was definitely written with a bit of a nod to some of those wierd studies. Good luck detoxing 🙂